2024: A Comprehensive Review of AI-Powered Mobile Imaging Technology Innovations

2024: A Comprehensive Review of AI-Powered Mobile Imaging Technology Innovations2024 witnessed an explosive surge in AI-driven technological innovation, with the industry consensus shifting from a focus on sheer parameter count to prioritizing application effectiveness. AI's influence has extended to numerous fields, including mobile phones, PCs, home appliances, and automobiles, with native AI applications becoming increasingly prevalent

2024: A Comprehensive Review of AI-Powered Mobile Imaging Technology Innovations

2024 witnessed an explosive surge in AI-driven technological innovation, with the industry consensus shifting from a focus on sheer parameter count to prioritizing application effectiveness. AI's influence has extended to numerous fields, including mobile phones, PCs, home appliances, and automobiles, with native AI applications becoming increasingly prevalent. Simultaneously, AI is profoundly reshaping software ecosystems, revolutionizing search engines, input methods, browsers, payment systems, office software, and e-commerce platforms. AI acts as a "magic wand" for technological innovation, and this is only the beginning. This article delves into the significant technological breakthroughs, innovations, and explorations in the mobile imaging field in 2024, celebrating innovation, documenting the era, and inspiring the future. These technologies, some now industry standards, others perhaps not entirely successful, all deserve recognition.

I. Periscope Lenses: Huawei's Exploration and the Current Industry Landscape

Representative Model: Huawei Pura 70 Ultra

Periscope lenses are not new to mobile imaging, but their large lens modules, bulky phone designs, and complex mechanical structures once led to their market abandonment. Huawei's Pura 70 Ultra, however, adopted a unique and advanced solution. It doesn't simply rely on periscope lenses for zoom, but utilizes this structure to enhance sensor light intake and significantly reduce phone thickness.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra may not be the most powerful imaging flagship of 2024, but its slim design is incredibly attractive. This is undoubtedly a boon for consumers who are passionate about photography but wary of bulky camera modules. (Image source: Huawei official)

However, apart from Huawei, other manufacturers haven't fully recognized the value of periscope lenses, or their technology remains immature, preventing periscope lenses from becoming a mainstream trend.

II. Variable Aperture: The Gap Between Expectation and Reality

Representative Models: Huawei Pura 70 Ultra & Nubia Z70 Ultra

In 2022, Huawei's Mate 50 series debuted variable aperture technology, followed by Xiaomi's 13 Ultra. However, its practicality was questioned by many consumers, who felt its impact on imaging was negligible.

Variable aperture technology isn't as intuitively understandable as ultra-telephoto lenses, ultra-high pixel counts, or oversized sensors. Its main purpose is to enhance the adaptability of mobile phone photography to different scenes. For example, large apertures are needed for portraits or close-ups, while smaller apertures are better for landscapes or panoramic shots. Without variable aperture, images often suffer from blur outside the focal point. (Image source: Nubia official)

Before variable aperture technology, users had to manually adjust aperture size in professional camera mode, requiring a deeper understanding of aperture and depth of field. Variable aperture lowers the barrier to entry, allowing users to automatically adjust aperture without extra steps. (Image source: Nubia official)

Currently, only Huawei and Nubia continue to use variable aperture technology. Regarding its practicality, we believe that "existence implies rationale"it does meet the needs of some users. The decision by some manufacturers to abandon it must have its reasons. Perhaps the future will see more products equipped with new variable aperture technologies.

III. Telephoto Lenses: Further, Longer, Stronger

Representative Model: vivo X100 Ultra

Telephoto lens technology has significantly evolved from early 8MP small-sensor lenses to today's 200MP ultra-large sensors comparable to main cameras, aiming to provide users with a further and clearer shooting experience.

In 2024, the Samsung HP91 1/1.4-inch sensor on the vivo X100 Ultra is impressive. Its CIPA 4.5-level image stabilization and 200MP pixel count remain among the strongest mobile telephoto sensors on the market. It's no exaggeration to say that the parameters and cost of this telephoto sensor are no less than many flagship phone's main cameras. (Image source: vivo official)

The advantage of telephoto lenses lies in simplifying picture elements, removing cluttered background information, highlighting the subject, and creating a spatial compression effect unachievable with wide-angle lenses. However, early telephoto lenses commonly suffered from low light intake, poor image quality, and excessive over-smoothing. The advent of high-pixel, large-sensor telephoto lenses effectively addressed these issues. The drawbacks remain higher manufacturing costs and thicker module thickness.

Ultra-long-distance shooting was once exclusive to professional cameras. For mobile phone manufacturers, continuously improving the shooting perspective and quality of mobile phones to approach professional cameras not only enhances image quality but also serves as a significant marketing point. In the future, telephoto lens technology will be a key focus for mobile phone manufacturers improving their imaging capabilities.

IV. Multispectral Imaging Technology: Achieving True-to-Life Color Reproduction

Representative Model: Huawei Mate 70 series

The multispectral imaging technology on Huawei's Mate 70 series, known as "Red Maple Original Color Imaging," attracted widespread attention. Simply put, it uses the sensor's three colors and post-processing by the ISP to reproduce the scene's colors as seen by the naked eye. (Image source: Huawei official)

Huawei isn't the first to use this on phones; OPPO and iPhone have tried using multi-channel color temperature sensors to improve color, but with less success. Huawei improved upon this. The Mate 70 series first records color information, then uses its ISP to reproduce missing colors, finally achieving a "what you see is what you get" effect through various auxiliary components.

It's understood that next year's OPPO Find X8 Ultra will also feature a new generation of multispectral imaging technology, further cementing Huawei's leading position in the imaging field.

V. Quick, Accurate, and Decisive Capture: Redefining the Camera Button

Representative Model: OPPO Find X8 Pro

We've previously analyzed camera buttons in detail, concluding that on many models they're purely for novelty and lack rationality. Currently, only Apple and OPPO include dedicated camera buttons. However, OPPO has clearly invested more in its design and refinement. Beyond activating the camera, taking photos, adjusting focal length, and recording video, its key feature is integration with the OPPO Find X8 series's instant capture capabilities, enabling "instant shooting." (Image source: OPPO official)

Xiaomi, Honor, Huawei, and vivo are also improving their instant capture and burst shooting capabilities. However, based on our experience, OPPO's instant capture is superior. Although its burst shooting speed isn't as fast, image quality is excellent, ensuring most photos are clear and usable. This is related to OPPO's approach: traditional instant capture relies on quick camera activation and continuous shooting, while OPPO identifies the subject, adjusts parameters, and then retains two framesadjustment before shooting. While sacrificing some speed, image quality is higher.

Instant capture and burst shooting are relatively easy to implement but significantly enhance the shooting experience. We believe OPPO and other manufacturers will make further breakthroughs in these areas.

VI. Live Photos: The "Apple-Flavored" Standard

Representative Model: OPPO Reno 13 series

Apple may not have anticipated the sudden popularity of Live Photos in 2024. Technically, it records a short video during shooting, sets the first frame as the cover, and users can play the video with sound by long-pressing. It's essentially a structured, high-definition, photo-based GIF.

Implementation is simple, but for a long time, only iPhones treated this as a core imaging feature, and many users didn't utilize it fully or even knew its difference from static photos. Although platforms like Weibo and Xiaohongshu supported Live Photos, their impact was limited. Until September 2024, when WeChat enabled Live Photos in Moments, they exploded in popularity.

Subsequently, almost all manufacturers promoted their Live Photos capabilities, even competing in image quality, supported platforms, and interoperability. (Image source: OPPO official)

We believe the Android manufacturers' adoption isn't mere imitation but reflects genuine user demand. Android manufacturers like OPPO have even developed AI-enhanced Live Photos quality and dynamic watermarks, demonstrating technological improvement.

Creating Live Photos isn't hard; the difficulty lies in Apple's extensive social application coverage. We believe that as Android manufacturers continue their efforts, more social platforms will support Android Live Photos, weakening iPhone's ecosystem advantage.

VII. Small-Sensor Cameras: The End of the "Area Argument"

Representative Model: vivo X200 Pro

One-inch sensors are a landmark in mobile imaging history. Xiaomi 12S Ultra and vivo X90 Pro+ delivered a huge impact, bringing professional camera-level results to phones. This sparked intense competition in sensor size. However, in 2024, manufacturers shifted focus from area to capability; simply competing on sensor size is a thing of the past.

This year, the vivo X200 Pro...

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